October 15, 2011

The dog jumped on the sofa, Mum said, "Tina, get down." Tina obeyed. She dropped into the down position but she stayed on the sofa even though Mum was not her trainer. It happened Mum uttered the precise command that works: the dog's name, the single-word clear command.

Mum said, "DOWN!" The dog dug her nose into her paws trying to be further down into the cushions. Then Mum looked at me and said, "That dog of yours doesn't listen at all."

Me: "Tina." *ears perk* "Get off the sofa." The dog jumps to floor and immediately sits alertly awaiting her next instruction. It's a bit Nazi-like actually, when you see it. A bit frightening, the dog is black, after all. In fact, her down command was so fierce that she was in the down position before the word is pronounced. We could not do this on hard surface because I feared she'd crack her elbows, but she sure was fun to practice on grass or on carpet.

And — oh, how we love Chip here at Althouse! — he animates the photo I took with the phone:

16 comments:

I am surprised that most people have not experienced "Julie" when making reservations with Amtrak. Please try that. She is better than Siri by light years. Here is the NYT story about it: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/24/nyregion/24voice.html.

Now, I am confused why Apple will not let me upgrade to 4s (since I have a 4 for a few months). Give consumers what they want. This waiting is losing money for both Apple and its telephone partners. So backward. So prehistoric.

This is your phone carrier's policy, not Apple's. The carrier subdizes the true cost of the phone at initial purchase, which you make up (and then some) in the payments you make over the course of your two year contract. You haven't paid your carrier enough yet for them to realize their profit.

Why so hot to upgrade anyway? The iPhone 4 is a fine phone; I have it, I use it, I'm happy with it. You had to have known when you purchased your phone that a new one was due imminently, so I am confused why you are confused or expected other than what you are experiencing.

In my case, I had never upgraded to 4. My old 3 had developed an actual problem: the on-off switch didn't work anymore. I had to turn it off by laying it face down somewhere. I would have replaced it earlier, but I waited for the next upgrade, which I went and picked up the day it came out.

By the way, I walked into an AT&T store at 1 in the afternoon and didn't even need to wait in line. Walked right in and up to a person at the counter who spent plenty of time with me, including helping me pick out a case (which I was balky about buying but pushed to buy by Meade, who knows that I drop the iPhone on the floor just about every day).

In Burlington, MA, I went for a Genius Bar question and was turned away, but given an appointment. They were otherwise engaged. The line was out the door and they were passing out bottles of war. Today, for my appointment at High Noon, there was still a long line outside the store and the store was crowded. The Genius Bar quickly and in a kindly manner, while multi-tasking, fixed my obvious problem and sent me on my way.

Our Bostons are bi-lingual. They were taught official dog commands by my wife, and they were taught English by me. They know to get off the sofa when she says 'off'. They crouch when she says 'down'. They also know to get down off the sofa when I say 'get down'.

Chips story made me laugh - its so logical that the dog would react that way when you think about it. I tend to treat my dogs like little humans, so have made the same kind of mistake. Dogs - gotta love em. Mom's too.